


Nine and counting

by Anonymous



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Beware! Mpreg ahead, Infidelity, M/M, Married Couple, Sexism, Strippers & Strip Clubs, a bit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24040003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A couple of scenes/ficlets which take place in the “It’s A Deal” AU.
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Anonymous Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains mpreg and probably controversial views on ‘gender’ roles. If you don’t like these things, please don’t read it.
> 
> I want to point out that I am NOT the author of It’s A Deal, this fic takes place in this AU but it is not compliant with the original storyline.
> 
> This is a gift to the original author of the AU, for letting me play with their amazing story, and rhettandtwink for encouraging me to write this. You’re both lovely.

  
“Is that everything, sir?”

Rhett stood from the small couch in his study and closed the folder in his hands. His boss and a couple of coworkers from the bank had come over to his house to discuss some numbers Rhett had prepared, and Link had extended his husband’s invitation into a dinner afterwards. Rhett had agreed, thinking that it might be a chance to charm his strict and unfriendly boss.

Now the man stood and nodded. “Very good, Rhett. Your calculations are proactive, I like that.”

“Thank you, sir.”

They left the study an went downstairs. Link had said that he would get them when dinner was ready, so they stood and waited in the hallway. A door opened and the oldest five children ran out, followed by a hectic nanny. “Sorry, Mr McLaughli, I told them that you were to busy to wish them good night, but…”

“It’s all right, Mariana. We have a minute.” Rhett was actually glad to see the kids after he hadn’t been with them all day. Furthermore, he’d planned this evening as an opportunity to present himself as a decent down-to-earth business partner, and he hoped that his flock of well mannered children would make a good impression. 

The children gathered around their father, only the two toddlers and the baby twins missing. It was close to 7pm, so they were already bathed and wearing pyjamas.

“May I present: this is the older half of my offspring” Rhett proclaimed in a pompous tone which made the oldest boys, Will and Jeremy giggle. The younger ones smiled shyly and tried to hide behind their brothers. Rhett’s coworkers smiled back and waved at the kids.

“Okay, now off to bed, monkeys!” He gave the nanny a sign and she shooed the little crowd back to their rooms, the kids shouting good night wishes over their shoulders.

“Wow, Rhett, that’s only one half? How many did you have again?” one of his colleagues asked with wide eyes.

“Nine, all together. So these five are only one half if you count the one we’re expecting at the moment.” Link had told him last week that they would have another kid. Rhett felt a bit guilty, since the exhausting birth of the twins had been only a little over two months ago, but the look on his husband’s face had made it clear that he didn’t mind in the least.

“You know that there are ways to prevent this happening, McLaughli.” His boss had raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, sir, but, my husband likes having babies.”

“And I bet you don’t mind putting them in him, right?” Rhett’s boss gave a dirty chuckle and clapped him on the shoulder. 

Rhett gritted his teeth and smiled back. He didn’t like the way the man talked about Link as if he was a piece of Rhett’s inventory; but he knew that this was just how people like his boss tried to show their superiority. 

“Sure, sir.”

“Would you like to come through, gentlemen? The food is ready.” Link stood in the door to the living room which had been meticulously cleaned and freed of any remaining building bricks and binkies.   
Link was playing the role of the host perfectly, dressed in tight slacks and a dark button-up with a colourful pattern on it. The fabric stretched over his still full chest and he’d left the top buttons open to allow a look on his cleavage. 

Rhett thought he looked gorgeous, radiating warmth and softness and something very homey. It had been a while since Link had been dressed up like this, especially without a pregnant belly in the way, and Rhett couldn’t get enough of the sight. Sure, he’d been crazy for his husband when he’d been slim and muscular, but he liked his body with all the marks and new soft parts even more.

Sometimes, Rhett was territorial, and he had often felt like Link was too attractive for a man with gangly limbs like his. It wasn’t very nice of him, but he liked that other guys were looking at Link less now. He enjoyed walking around with his arm around his pregnant husband, because he knew that now those looks weren’t lustful anymore; now those men were envying Rhett for his big family. Everyone could see that Link belonged to a good man who got him pregnant over and over again. 

They sat down and started to eat the wonderful meal Link had prepared with the help of their new housekeeper. Link was leading the conversation effortlessly now that the business talk was over.

“Quite the prize you got there, man.” Dave, another coworker who was there that evening leaned over to Rhett and nodded at Link. 

“I know” Rhett smiled.

“There’s just something about preggies… The way they get all soft and booby.”

“Hey, easy there stud! That man is taken.” Rhett’s words were playful, but the look he shot Dave was a clear warning.

“Don’t worry don’t worry, I’m just saying I can’t wait to get a wife and start my own little family. Must be nice to come home to a bunch of little ones and _that_ pair of tits.”

Rhett rolled his eyes. He was about to explain to Dave that there was more to being a family guy than rosy cheeked kids and soft boobs, but then he heard a quiet voice.

“Daddy?” 

Brittany stood in the door to the hallway which led to the kids’ rooms. Everyone turned and she tried to hide behind the door frame. 

“Hey sweetie, what is it?” Link asked and stretched his hands towards her. 

“Mary can’t sleep, Daddy, I think she’s hungry.”

“Oh. Um, excuse me, gentlemen, apparently there’s more hungry mouths I have to feed tonight.”

The guests chuckled and Link stood up. “Need help, hun?” Rhett asked.

“Oh no, I’ll be right back. You just keep eating.”

He left and Brittany turned to follow him. “Hey sweetie, you wanna take the place of host for a minute?” Rhett asked and she nodded and climbed onto Link’s empty chair. She leaned over to Rhett. “What are all these men doing here?” she whispered.

“These men work with Dad, hun.”

She nodded solemnly and looked around. “Hello, Dad’s with-workers” she said. They laughed and Brittany blushed at their reaction, enjoying the attention. She squealed happily when they all replied in unison: “Hello, Rhett’s daughter.”

Rhett pecked Brittany good night and she left with a small wave. The men continued the meal for a while until Rhett’s boss spoke up.

“So, that husband of yours. Pretty thing.”

Rhett bit his lip and swallowed a snappy reply. _My husband is not a thing._ He didn’t need to make his boss angry, so he just said: “Yes, sir. He’s terribly important to me.” He hoped that this would be enough to make the other men realise that he didn’t appreciate their slightly condescending tone.

“You know, I’ve always wondered why you keep expanding your little army of children, Rhett, but looking at your Link now… I probably wouldn’t stop either!” His boss gave another one of his dirty laughs and the other men politely joined in. Rhett’s smile was frozen into place. _Don’t say anything,_ he reminded himself.   
The urge to defend Link’s honour in some way drummed in his chest, but he bit the words back and remained silent. His boss was a bully, patronising and sexist, and he deserved a good tongue-lashing some time, but Rhett could not be the one to give it to him. Not when there were nine children and his pregnant husband down the hall who all needed to eat and sleep somewhere; who depended on Rhett making money no matter if he made it by working for an asshole.

Link returned to the table with a smile, his shirt collar slightly askew. He had probably opened the buttons in order to feed Mary. Rhett felt terrible when he saw Link’s cheerful expression, completely oblivious to Rhett’s boss’s remarks and unaware of the eyes on his neckline.

“Sweetie.” Rhett pointed at Link’s collar. The other one giggled and pulled it straight. Link was happy to have guests, he didn’t get to play dinner host very often; but Rhett wished the evening would end quickly. He just wanted his boss and coworkers to leave and take any thought about work with them so that he could curl up with Link and rest his head on his soft belly.  
He was glad when the other men left soon after the dessert, not without big compliments to the homemaker and cook of course.

Link was exhausted after the last guest was gone. He flopped down onto the couch and rubbed his back which was aching even now, weeks after the last birth.

“Thank you, hun. This was amazing, and so important for my work.” Rhett sat down beside him and gave him a small peck. “It’s great how you support me.”

Link blushed. “It was only a dinner.”

“A lovely dinner. With a beautiful host.” Rhett touched Link’s still almost empty belly. “Can’t wait till you’re big again. You’ll look even better than now.”

“There’s no need to flatter me, sweetie. You already put another one in there.”

“You sure? I can’t see anything.” Rhett poked his stomach playfully, pretending to search for something. “I better make sure, yeah?” he added, starting to kiss at the shirt fabric.

“Yeah.” Link laughed. “We better make sure.”


	2. Not enough

Link had done something bad. Something he never thought he’d do. He’d tracked down his husband’s phone, and now he was standing in front of the building it was in. He prayed that someone had stolen it, because if it hadn’t been stolen, that meant that Rhett was in there with it, and Link didn’t know what he’d do should he find his husband in a strip club.

Rhett hadn’t come home that night, something he’d never done before. Of course Link had called, one of the kids was sick and he needed Rhett to go to the doctor with them; but Rhett hadn’t answered the phone, hadn’t answered the messages Link had sent and the receptionist at his workplace had said that Rhett had left hours ago.

So Link had called his mother to watch the children and now he was staring at a dirty club entrance in the seediest part of town. The sound of drunk men and tacky music was audible out on the street, and he protectively put his hands around his heavy belly. Child number five was in there, and Link didn’t want them to pick up on how scared their father was.

He took a deep breath and went inside. The bouncer gave his belly and maternity clothes an appraising glance and shrugged. Link had the feeling that he wasn’t the first heavily pregnant person in this establishment.

The main room of the club was mainly just a floor with small tables full of men, arranged around a small stage. A girl dressed in next to nothing was spinning around a pole, the air was full of laughter and whistles and smelled of cheap beer. Link tried to find Rhett in the crowd, still hoping he wouldn’t be there. His eyes scanned the room until they stopped a particularly tall man in a suit that, as Link knew, had been pressed just his morning by the man’s loving, stupid husband. 

A sob escaped Link’s mouth and a few of the customers turned around to look at him. He felt like an alien in that place with his expensive but boring clothes and the diaper bag he’d forgotten to leave in the car on his shoulder. He had to look like a picture book homemaker. 

Link was desperately trying to hold back his tears, but it wasn’t working. They ran down his cheeks as he fought his way through the rows of tables in the direction of his husband. There were whistles and remarks thrown at him, but he ignored them. His throat felt so tight that he thought he might choke. Rhett wasn’t one of these men, right? He was a good man.

“Rhett?”

Rhett turned around and his face blanched. “Hun? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Save your hun, Rhett! What are _you_ fucking doing here?” Link’s panic turned into anger. He realised that he hadn’t done anything wrong, it was Rhett who was the bad one. Link was always doing his best to make Rhett happy.

Rhett stood up and took Link’s arm. “How did you find me here?”

Link tried to shake his husband’s hand off, still crying. Everyone in the club was staring at them now, even the dancer was watching the scene from the stage. 

“Let go, Rhett! It doesn’t matter how I found you! What… what is this Rhett? Why are you not at home? Jeremy’s sick, he needs to go to the doctor. I don’t understand…”

Link was so confused. What had he done wrong? He’d always thought that men only went to these kind of sinful places when their partners were making some kind of mistake. But he had done everything right, hadn’t he? He was always there for Rhett, supported him, cooked for him, and he never denied him sex, even when he was actually too tired or achy to enjoy it. 

“Sweetheart, let’s not discuss this in here” Rhett tried to mollify him.

“No!” Link knew that if they went outside now, Rhett would just take him to his car and refuse to further talk about it. “What do you get here that I can’t give you? Why am I not enough?” he sobbed.

Rhett sighed exasperatedly and rubbed his eyes. “Do you want to know the truth, Link? You’re fucking pregnant all the time! We had four kids in three years, and now you’re like this again.” He pointed at Link’s round bump. “I love you, I do, but I can’t get off with that giant thing in the way!”

Link’s face was burning with shame. He couldn’t satisfy his husband anymore. He’d failed at the one thing that was really important to him. His tears dropped down onto his belly and he didn’t wipe them away. Still, somehow this was Rhett’s fault as well, wasn’t it? Hadn’t he wanted children too?

“This _thing_ is your child, Rhett! And… and maybe I wouldn’t be pregnant all the time if you weren’t fucking me at every opportunity without even asking whether I want it too beforehand.”

Rhett looked almost ashamed now. “Link, I…”

“No. Forget it, yeah?” Link turned around and started his way back to the door, the people around him still staring. “Don’t expect to sleep in our house tonight.”

Link stumbled outside into the fresh air. He was crying more than ever now that the tension of the fight had left his system. He leaned his head against a wall to calm himself down, completely clueless what to do next. He’d dedicated his life to his husband. What was he supposed to do if they separated? 

Link heard the club door swinging open, Rhett’s voice calling for him, and then he felt a familiar cramp in his lower body combined with a wet warmth spreading over his thighs.

Their child was coming.


End file.
